“Banishment to Sado”

I, Nichiren, am the son of a chandala family who lived near the seashore in Tojo in Awa Province, in the remote countryside of the eastern part of Japan. To discard my body, which would otherwise decay in vain, for the sake of the Lotus Sutra will be like exchanging rocks for gold. None of you should lament for me.
(Sado go-kanki sho, Shimpen gosho, p. 482; MWND-5, p. 123)

Chandala

We wrote this lecture on the "Chandala" 15 years ago. Please read he Oko Sermon dated February 2007 by Reverend Shogu Kimura. I read what this Priest wrote about the Chandala and I can tell you that this man does not "get it." The Japanese makes the life of a Chandala not such a bad life. The Chandala were Black people in India who had to face the worse inhumanity to man. Their faith was worst than slavery in America. This Priest is certainly off the target.

Click on the above picture. Rev. Shogu Kimura writes this about the Chandala. "In ancient Indian society, chandala referred to the lowest class of people, in charge of butchering animals. Shakyamuni, who made his advent into this world 3000 years ago, and T’ien-t’ai in China and Dengyo in Japan were all born into royalty – the highest classes in their respective societies. They were born into royalty so that their noble position would easily enable the people in society to believe in True Buddhism. Among the founders of Buddhist sects in Japan during the lifetime of the Daishonin, Honen of the Jodo Sect, for example, was the child of a wealthy and powerful family. Eisai, well-known as the founder of the Rinzai School of Zen, came from a heritage steeped in Shinto Shrines. Moreover, Shinran and Dogen were both born into nobility."